The present invention relates to a new developing agent for silver halide color photographs, a processing composition containing the developing agent, and a method for forming a color image with the processing solution. In particular, the present invention relates to a developing agent for color photographs suitable for rapid processing of color photographs and capable of forming an image with only a slight fog, a processing composition containing the developing agent, and a method for forming a color image with the processing solution.
As mini-labs for processing photosensitive materials within the shops and the amount of color negative films used in the field of news photos are increasing recently, the demand for completion of the development process in a shorter time to immediately provide the prints to the customers or to immediately place the photo in newspapers or the like is rapidly increasing. The demand for reduction of the processing time is becoming more and more eager in processing color negative films, since the time necessitated therefor is longer than that necessitated for processing color papers.
For the reduction of the time necessitated for the color development step in the processing steps, Japanese Patent Unexamined Published Application (hereinafter referred to as "J. P. KOKAI") No. Hei 4-45440 discloses a method wherein tetrahydroquinoline or a dihydroindole derivative is used as the color developing agent. The use of such a compound as the color developing gent is also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,196,739 and 2,566,259. In particular, it is described in J. P. KOKAI No. Hei 4-45440 that the time of the color developing step can be reduced by using such a compound as the color developing agent even in color photograhic photosensitive materials mainly comprising a silver bromoiodide emulsion such as color negative films.
However, when the color photographic photosensitive material mainly comprising the silver bromoiodide emulsion is developed with one of the compounds disclosed in the above-described specifications, there are some disadvantages in that the density of the formed image in the unexposed area is high, in other words, the fog is serious.